Jon Jones has made another public run at peace with Daniel Cormier, and this time he brought food. In an appearance on the Prince Street Pizza YouTube channel, filmed in Baton Rouge, the former two-division champion invited Cormier to come share a pie with him and proposed that the two of them host a meet-and-greet for fans. Baton Rouge sits in Louisiana, Cormier’s home state, which makes the venue feel less like a coincidence and more like an olive branch with extra cheese.
“My goal is to make bygones be bygones, invite him out for a pizza; maybe we can do a meet-and-greet for the fans here. We’re older,” Jones said. He went further, offering to cover the trip himself. “So hopefully, if you’re watching, Daniel Cormier, I’ll invite you out here to Baton Rouge. I’ll fly you out. We can have pizza. We can talk. You can show me things about Louisiana. And we can bury the hatchet.”
Before the invitation, the Rochester native also floated a compliment that would have been unthinkable from him a few years ago. Jones said Cormier could possibly be the greatest of all time if the two hadn’t competed in the same era. As of the Essentially Sports report, Cormier had not publicly responded.
A long history of failed truces
This is familiar territory for Jones. After he beat Cormier for the second time at UFC 214, he told Sports Illustrated in August 2017 that he hoped the two could eventually put the rivalry down and work together on a charitable cause. That goodwill evaporated fast. Jones tested positive for turinabol in an in-competition USADA test, the win was overturned to a no-contest, and Cormier’s contempt for him only hardened.
Nearly a decade later, the two were cast as opposing coaches on a reality show, and Jones saw the setup as a chance to build some kind of friendship. Cormier made clear he had no interest in being buddies and even challenged Jones to a wrestling match.
Then things got uglier. Speaking to ALF Global in late July 2026, Jones claimed Cormier had privately admitted during filming that the feud was an act kept alive for the money. Cormier answered on his own YouTube channel and called the story false. “That just didn’t happen,” he said. “This is not a conversation that Jon and I had. It just isn’t.” Cormier acknowledged the rivalry had paid him well, and he compared it to Muhammad Ali’s fights with Joe Frazier and George Foreman and to Khabib Nurmagomedov’s rivalry with Conor McGregor. “You always need a person on the other side in order to make the big dollars,” he said. His point was that the money followed a real dislike, and that nothing about it was staged.
Quick take
I’ll give Jones this: picking Louisiana, offering the plane ticket, and asking Cormier to show him around his home state is a thoughtful pitch, warmer than anything a press release could manage. The timing is the problem. Three months ago Jones told an interviewer that Cormier faked their beef for paychecks, and Cormier went on camera to call it a conversation that never happened. You don’t repair that with a slice and a photo line. If Cormier ever does walk into that Baton Rouge pizza shop, it will be because Jones first walked back the ALF Global story, and so far he hasn’t said a word about it.
